Ella Catherine's 9th birthday

Ella Catherine had a big time celebrating her 9th birthday.  The morning of her birthday she had soccer try-outs and then the celebration kicked off with a bowling birthday party that afternoon with her friends.   Then on Sunday, Matt, Ella Catherine, my dad (AKA Pop) and I went to watch the USA women's  soccer team take on France.  It was a beautiful day and luckily our seats were not in the sun, it was perfect.  Even better was USA won in a down to the last second goal.  It was such a fun and exciting game to watch.  While we were at the game, Nana was home with Carter and Cassidy.  They had dinner all ready for us and we had a nice birthday celebration dinner with all of ella Catherine's requests.  Hamburgers, macaroni and cheese and green beans.

Her big gift this year was a family trip to go gold and gem mining in Dahlonega, Georgia.  Ella Catherine is our young geologist in the making.  She LOVES rocks and learning about all the different types of gems and stones.  This trip was amazing.  We went to Consolidated Gold mines.  When it was up and running, it was the largest mine East of the Mississippi.  We had a great tour of the mine and then the kids went gold and gem mining.  The kids each went away with a bag of precious stones.  We had intended on spending the night in Dahlonega; however, we finished up at the mine a lot sooner than we anticipated.  So, we decided to head back to Chattanooga to play a little.  We had hoped to get back in town in time to go to the children's museum or the aquarium, but unfortunately they were both about to close as we rolled into Chattanooga.  So, we went to the park where we played and road the carousel instead.  It was Cassidy's first carousel ride.  She was a little fearful at first but when it was over she said she loved it.  We went out to dinner and then we drove back home as sleeping in our own beds sounded nice!  A great two weekends spent celebrating our first born.  She challenges us in so many ways every day but she also teaches us so much every day.  We are very blessed and lucky to be her parents.

Birthday girl with her bowling ball cake pops ready for the party to start

Birthday shirt #9

Nissan Stadiun ready to cheer on the USA womens soccer team

watching the players enter the Stadium

Group Selfie (amy, matt and the birthday girl)

Pop and Ella Catherine

Father and daughter/ Nashville skyline

Loaded in and on our way to our family adventure in Dahlonega, Ga

Ready to get this party started

Waiting on our tour guide for the mine tour

Going down into the mine

The large hole you see was the largest Quartz Vein that they extracted from this mine.  It contained the largest amount of gold ever taken out of the mine in a single day.

Under ground

Pointing out a small quartz vein

Cassidy wasn't so sure initially when we were going down into the mine, but once we were underground she loved it! 

Larger view of the underground tunnels

After the tour we were all set to start mining ourselves

Ella Catherine panning for gold

Still panning

Matt helping Cassidy pan for Gold

Matt Panning

Success!  He found 4 flakes of gold

Matt helping Cassidy pan for gold

Success!  she found 2 flakes of gold

What she was really excited for, gem mining

Carter gem mining 

Cassidy showing off one of her stones

Very important decision.  Which animal to ride.  Cassidy picking out her first carousel ride.

And she chose the Tiger.  Ella Catherine chose the Rabbit

And Carter chose the horse

After the carousel we went and played at the park.  This is part of the water park.  In the summer animals like this elephant each squirt out water.   It was a beautiful park.

Big kids and Matt played some football in the park while Cassidy and I went and looked at the river and other sites at the park.